Health care coverage delayed is a need denied

The most recent health-insurance mess, this one evidently at the federal level, is on the way to being cleared up. Let's hope governments at all levels have finally got their acts together.

North Carolinians seeking health insurance under the Affordable Care Act had to use the federal exchange, as North Carolina refused to set up its own. Applications from people eligible for Medicaid or NC Health Choice were to be sent to state and local level for processing.

Nothing happened for months, at least for North Carolinians. No applications were transmitted until Jan. 16, three and a half months after the federal exchange opened, according to state officials. The state still is waiting for paperwork on one-third of the 60,000 people identified as being potentially eligible for Medicaid or Health Choice.

This doesn't mean all the applications sat in Washington for months. Some may not have been filed until January. Others may have been blocked by the massive computer mess at the outset of the signup. Still, delay is delay whatever the reason.

"Once NC FAST (the state computer system that processes the applications) has completed the initial screening and made any corrections, the application is sent to the assigned county for processing," said Kirsti Clifford, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Buncombe County received 732 applications last week. Haywood County received 46 on Monday.

"What's supposed to happen, those applications are supposed to be transmitted to us. The problem is up until recently all those Medicaid applications were sitting in the federal marketplace," said Phillip Hardin, economic services director for Buncombe County Health and Human Services.

This backlog might have been averted had the state set up it own exchange, cutting out one step in the process. Then again, maybe not. The state has had a lot of its own problems with Medicaid. Had HHS been in charge, the situation might have been as bad, or worse.

The numbers don't mean that 732 eligible people are waiting in Buncombe and 46 in Haywood. Some may already have applied for coverage and others may not be eligible.

Other delays may be due to the applications themselves. "From what I've heard, some of those applications do not have all of the information necessary for accurate processing," Teresa Allison, program administrator for the Haywood Department of Social Services.

"If we deem that is the situation, we will send out a paper application or request for information so we have everything we need."

Allison urges anyone who has not heard about an application to contact the county social-service agency.

Whatever the problem, the situation has been frustrating for many. Consider the situation of David Robinson, a Haywood County man trying to get his son signed up for Health Choice, the state program for children in families with too much income for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance.

Robinson obtained coverage for himself last year but could not put his son on the plan because federal officials determined the son was eligible for Health Choice. He called the federal marketplace in January and was told the decision was pending at the state level. State officials said they had no knowledge of the application.

Robinson said Haywood County officials were able to look up the application, but they couldn't process it. He was asked to fill out a paper application and provide more information to the Haywood DSS.

"There are probably countless people in this same boat," Robinson said. He's probably right. And that's a sad testament to the ability of governments to serve the less fortunate among us.

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Health care coverage delayed is a need denied

The most recent health-insurance mess, this one evidently at the federal level, is on the way to being cleared up. Let's hope governments at all levels have finally got their acts together.